There are thousands of good restaurants in Tokyo ranging from small street-food to Michelin stars. I suppose in one way they are all very similar; miso soup, sushi, sashimi, tempura, noodles, table BBQ and perhaps that’s why the Japanese love weirdly-themed restaurants.
One popular theme seems to be Alice in Wonderland, with one chain offering at least three Alice-themed restaurants throughout the city.
It was actually quite hard to find, as the restaurant is on the fifth floor of a non-descript building, with only a small sign outside. I had to rely on my phone’s GPS to tell us we were there.
You take the elevator to the fifth floor and are immediately facing a large storybook which is also a door to the restaurant:
A girl, who I think was dressed as The Mad Hatter, appeared, advised us that there was a ‘cover charge of 600 Yen (about US$5 each)’ and took us to our table. The restaurant was quite small, made larger by mirrors and not surprisingly had an Alice theme:
Alice (well one of the several Alice’s) arrived with a box:
The box opened up to become a menu and a small room – part of the ‘drink/eat me shrink thing’.
The drink menu had a pop-up hat and playing cards:
Both menus had seen better days, but it was still quite nice to see the theme had been followed through – the menu choices were also themed versions of pizza/pasta type dishes, with a few half-Italian, half-Japanese options.
An afternoon-tea style plate arrived, which was apparently the ‘cover charge’:
The themed food wasn’t that great, but in places like this the food is secondary to the experience:
It looked like it was someone’s birthday on a nearby table and the waitresses came to sing them a song:
Our waitress was happy to pose for a picture with me:
and take our picture:
It looked like the restaurant was closing and Alice said “Time to go now”. The bill was 6400 Yen.
On the way out I asked the Mad Hatter if I could take her picture but she said “I do not allow photos”, which was pretty strange coming from someone dressed up in a themed restaurant – maybe her family doesn’t know about her secret life down the rabbit hole?
If you are looking for that weirdness of Japan, then you’ll find it here – but don’t come for the food.
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